SOURCE OF HATE FOR ISALM

The constant drumbeat of hate for Muslims is deafening. It is almost impossible to find a good word for Islam in the media. Why? There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world and according to the western media; they are a seething mass of uniformly untrustworthy burka wearing, woman beaters, and murdering thugs. I lived and worked in a Muslim country (Indonesia) and visited Muslim countries and say none of this. Of course, such tings are there. What I did see was severe poverty in some countries but that was it.

 I have blogged about my feelings on my web sight and responded to such things as the asinine move to ban burkes, prevent the building of mosques in New York City, and other such nonsense. A Canadian friend living in Belize criticized me for my support of Muslims by saying he didn’t understand why I even wanted to live in the United States. I recently had a debate on FACEBOOK with a self-proclaimed expert on religion, who said he is strongly anti-Islam and felt Sharia law was abominable but refused to compare it to what biblical law would be if we did not have separation of church and state. All of this confused me. How can it be that people in the United States, who have no knowledge of Islam or how they live, have a deep felt hate for followers of this religion. Why is this the way it is? What forces are at play? The answer is that these people can only know what they are told; this post is about the source of that information. 

The hate has a long historical foundation. The world has a history of the Crusades: Christian fighting Islam, religions fighting each other for superiority. We all know that Abrahamic religions, although almost identical, in one form or another have been at the center of human tragedy since their inception. Religious people cannot tell you what the real basis of their belief is for preferring one is or another God or what they perceive God might be. When we ask atheists to explain what they do not believe in, few of them can explain what it is they do not believe other than to say it is a powerful force. I do not want to get into the debate about religion, for now I am only concerned about the source of the existing pervasive hate for Islam. Church leaders tell us we are a Christian nation, which for the most part is true. Most people claim to be “loving” Christians. Notably, believing in God is not a requirement to hate Muslims; the truth is that there are many who do not go to church or even believe in one or another God who are among those who “hate” Muslims.

The internet creates a wonderful path to knowledge. As I sifted through the hate literature, much of it seemed associated with the political right. Two things became evident; it seems the hate is most intense in those with low IQ thus the followers in society. I make this judgment from level of the publication in which I find the articles and the intellectual level of the associated rhetoric. The second thing is the nature of the information suggests it does not originate with the right wing group. The impression is that political parties are using this hate for a political purpose; my enemy is your enemy and my friend is your friend. Support us with your money and your votes because we have this common enemy.

At first blush, this is confusing. The Jewish community in the United States tends to be liberal, yet the hate Muslim literature tends to originate from the right wing. Although it appears to originate at the grass roots level, it is not the grass roots, but rather the party operatives who are responsible; thus, is easily traceable to attempts to recruit the Jewish sympathy.

Identifying the role played by the Jewish community opens up the debate to the on going problems in the Middle East. The most obvious thing is that it is not the Jewish community in the United States but the Israeli supporters in this community; these are not synonymous. In addition, we have to add non-Jewish people such as myself, who have supported the establishment and maintenance of Israel. I strongly supported the establishment of a Jewish state after the Second World War. I was just a child but I am old enough to remember the ghastly horrors of opening up the German based death camps, which is something that should never even come close to happening again. Even as I young boy, it was so horrendous to me that I can remember forming an opinion. Like most people, I felt that a religious Jewish home state was an answer. Although, I was naive enough to not be able to realize what that would mean. World leaders told us Palestine, the proposed location of the new state, was an empty territory and some of us thought the new state would be somewhat like the Vatican, the home of the church leaders but not the home for all Catholics. Of course, all the evidence at the time pointed made it obvious that this would not be the case.

As we all will recall, the UN Partition vote favored the formation of the new state of Israel. What we did not know was the impact the influx of Jews people who displaced million of Palestinians. Many of them chose not to integrate but rather to leave their homeland. In addition, Jewish political pressure worked to maintain a Jewish majority. Regional wars and strife ensued and eventually brought us to where we are today; the influx of Jews logically expanded the population and increased the need for more land, which they are taking piecemeal from Palestinian owned land in territories to form what they call settlements. Thus, we have a divided territory ruled with an iron fist by Jews, who their 20 Arab neighbors collectively hate because they are there and because of their abominable treatment of Palestinians over the past 60 plus hears. The world is divided on the issue; should there be a single state or a two state solution? The President of Israel, Netanyahu refuses to accept a two state solution, which would draw sovereign boundaries and prevent him from expanding and he does not want a one state solution either because that would mean the Jewish majority would be put in jeopardy. That majority is the whole reason for the existence of Israel.

With publication of the plight of the Palestinian people, world sympathy tends to be moving from the Second World War fervor in favor of the Jews to be in favor of the Palestinian people. It seems clear; the Jewish propaganda machine, which has been very successful, is in full swing trying to keep world favor on their side. Although that machine aims at building hate for Palestinians, the immediate enemy, it has expanded the hate to include the 20 Arab or Islamic neighbors. Thus, this hate has slowly creped from a few people to include the entire Muslim world. The United States stand with Israel with the strongly held belief that it as a nation that has every right to exist; I agree. However, the Jewish propaganda machine takes advantage of this feeling and claims that because we take this stand, we are their “only” friend; thus, are an enemy of Islam. The people occupying this piece of land, 290 miles long and 85 miles across at its widest point, and their supporter around the world has upset the entire world by creating hate for 1.2 billion people. I chose to divide the Jewish supports into two groups; those that support the dictatorial polices of Netanyahu and those who want peace. I stand with those who want peace but fear that the others are generating hate for themselves by not accepting a two state solution. We have had enough of hate in this world. I wish they would stop their propaganda campaign and accept the size of the territory as it is, a big step toward peace in the Middle East.

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